4 Comments// Posted in HLP, m learning, study leave, utm by Nor Fadzleen Sa don on 09.23.12.
It’s been a tad long hiatus. Entangled with work commitment, exam obligations and various overlapping tasks, it is easy to forget that I have this blog. After 12 years of teaching, I have decided to venture into a different realm.
I decide to be a student again.
I count my blessings that the Ministry of Education has given me this golden opportunity to learn and relearn. With the scholarship, I am granted two years of study leave and now, I am studying in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), majoring in Information Technology Management. I have always wanted to learn more on IT and I believe that the new gained knowledge could complement my experience and knowledge in English Language Teaching in years to come. Honestly, after 2 weeks of classes, it’s definitely not a bed of roses. I have to learn C++ Programming, Networking and Systems Development apart from management subjects. It’s a bit mind boggling for an ordinary English teacher like me but yeah, I’ll try my best and hopefully I won’t lose my hair by the time I graduated 🙂
I plan to focus on m-learning, which specifically cater to the use of applications in mobile learning. I feel that there is a major potential for m-learning to develop effectively in Malaysian schools. My target is to come up with a mobile apps that could assist learners to learn English Language more effectively, Insya Allah.
The hardest part of taking this painstaking journey is to leave my beloved students. I know there are those who question my decision to study. My explanation is tad simple. My study leave is granted by Ministry of Education, the same body that pay the other teachers’ salary. So I reckon if they have no qualm with me leaving school to study, why should there be any issue, no? For me, it does not lessen my dedication towards the profession. After all, I’m merely trying to discover another path of knowledge. Ah well, we can’t please everyone now can we? Alhamdulillah, my friends, former colleagues and ex-students have been very supportive and I am touched by their words of encouragement. Thank you to SMK Tasek Utara for giving me the opportunity to teach and discover my potential as an educator. Thank you to all my colleagues for your guidance and friendship. Thank you for my family for understanding why I need to do this. Pray that I can sail through my studies with ease.
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| A wonderful parting gift. Gigantic card, made lovingly by my beloved students. Love you heaps. |
9 Comments// Posted in cambridge placement test, exam, johor, teaching by Nor Fadzleen Sa don on 07.02.12.
Last Thursday, I joined other Heads of English Language Panels to attend a briefing on Cambridge Placement Test (CPT) at PPDJB. The briefing was conducted by Ms. Ruzana and Mr. Vijayan, the JB DELOs and it turned out that every English optionist in Malaysia has to sit for this test. I did wonder why the test was made compulsory for all the teachers and what type of assessment do we have to endure. According to the DELOs, it was supposed to be a yardstick to measure a teacher’s English Language competence.
The test is conducted online and will test on comprehension, listening and grammatical competence. For the teachers in Johor Bahru, the test would be conducted on Friday the 13th (oh, isn’t that an auspicious date? Heh). Teachers will be given 30 minutes to answer all of the questions. Hopefully, sans technical glitch and server problems as the test would be concurrently carried out in JB and Segamat as well.
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| The bands. Au contraire, we definitely shouldn’t be jumping in joy if we achieve A1 in the test 😛 According to the DELO, those who did not achieve a targetted band will have to attend courses. I’ve been told some teachers failed in the test not because they lack the competence in ELT but apparently, they aren’t tech-savvy and misunderstood the rubrics given. So do familiarise yourself with the test structure and hopefully the tutorials and demo provided can assist you in some way or another. |
In case you would like to try out the test before the assigned date, feel free to try out the demo. My advice, please get yourself a good headphone or earphone because you really need it when you have to listen attentively to the audio recordings.
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| To try out the demo for Cambridge Placement Test, click here. |
Good luck !
2 Comments// Posted in conference, digital storytelling, johor, jpnj, speaking, teaching by Nor Fadzleen Sa don on 06.30.12.
Date : 12-14th June 2012
Venue : M Suite Hotel
Organiser : Johor English Language Teacher Association (JELTA)
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| Balan Moses (NST), Dato’ Syed Nadzri (NST), En. Hasidin (JPNJ), Datin Dr. Maimunah (M Suite) & Vincent (JELTA) during the opening ceremony.
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Pn. Sallina Hussain, Pengetua Cemerlang & my mentor. I hope I can emulate her dedication and teaching fervour.
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| I was invited by JELTA to present during the plenary session at the conference. I feel humbled and grateful that I’ve been given the chance to share my ideas with others. Despite minor challenges faced, I perceive it as a positive sign that if you are doing something right, the right thing will happen, Insya Allah 🙂 |
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| Wonderful people I’ve met during the conference. I met and networked with a lot of teachers and I think a conference is a great platform to engage ourselves with new teaching methodology or keep abreast with the latest info pertaining to ELT in Johor. It was great to be reunited with my juniors, Intan & Terry. The ever bubbly Kak Rocky is someone who I respected as well. I used to be in awe of her due to her active participation in debate and drama so it’s great to know she has now become a cool friend too. Meeting Uma from St. Andrew’s Muar is serendipitous indeed. We used to teach at La Salle Brickfields and knew the same circle of friends. What a small world! |
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| Sharing session with the conference participants. It was heartening to get positive feedbacks from them on the materials I’ve shared. Of course, there is always room for improvement and I will constantly try to improve my presentation skills from time to time. For those who are asking for the presentation slides, enclosed is my presentation and I hope it could benefit others as well. Sharing is caring! |
6 Comments// Posted in action research, english, ICT, learning, melta, MY-LIT, seminar, teaching, writing by Nor Fadzleen Sa don on 06.03.12.
Date : 28-29 th May 2012
Venue : Sunway Putra Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.
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| The opening ceremony. This year, the conference is held at 2 venues, KL and Kuching. This has been my 4th time participating in MELTA conference, all using my own expenses. I perceive it as a good platform to share ideas, revive my learning styles and network with other educators. |
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| HRH Raja Zarith Sofiah Almarhum Raja Idris Shah, the royal patron of MELTA. |
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| I did the ‘crazy’ bit by sharing my action research during the Creative Teacher Showcase and conducting workshop during the conference. The main idea was to share what I’ve done with my students but I tell ya, it’s kinda taxing and I missed some of paper presentations from others too 🙁 Maybe next time, I’ll reconsider doing both in the next conference. On the bright side, I got the chance to showcase the project that I’ve conducted with my students. The biggest perk is to get Dato’ Dr. Khair B. Mohd Yusof, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Education and Datin Dr. Siti Zaleha Abdullah Sani, Director, Bahagian Teknologi Pendidikan (BTP) dropping by at my booth to watch the videos made by my students. I think E-Learning would definitely be a great catalyst to motivate our students to learn better and discover their true potentials. |
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| I’m happy that my book is finally out and launched during the 21st MELTA Conference. The book, ‘ICT and ELT: Researches and Practices in South East Asia’ is the first book that focuses on the use of ICT in English Language Teaching in South East Asia and I’m glad to be part of this project. You can purchase the book via the MELTA’s website. I wrote a chapter entitled ‘Utilising Web 2.0. technologies in teaching the KBSM English Literature Component via MY LIT PROJECT’, a classroom-based action research that I had conducted with my students back in 2010. I’ve presented it during the 19th MELTA Conference and it was featured in The Star newspaper as well. Dr. Kabilan proposed that I write it as an academic write-up and honestly, I was kinda apprehensive at first because it’s my first attempt at academic writing after years of graduating B.ed in 2001. Nonetheless, I took it as an opportunity to enrich my writing skills and share what Malaysian teachers are doing in classroom. I was surprised to know that I’m the only teacher contributor among the distinguished South East Asian lecturers. Thanks Dr. Kabilan for the vouch of confidence and I hope this will not be my last attempt. |
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| The workshop that I’ve conducted on the last day of conference. I decided to do a workshop on Hot Potatoes although I am aware there are so many latest E-Learning tools such as Edmodo, QR Code and other social networking sites that cater to classroom teaching and learning. The main reason why I did it is to encourage teachers to generate their own learning materials, to suit their students’ invidual needs. Since Hot Potatoes can be used online or offline, it shouldn’t be any qualm for teacher not to try this in school. To me, Hot Potatoes can be used to generate revision materials, extra reinforcement activities for students and students enjoy it as they are interactive and game-like. I’m glad that the workshop received good response from everyone and a lecturer even suggested I write a paper on this in the MELTA journal so I can share this with everyone. Alhamdulillah, I was awarded Bronze for Basil Wijayasuriya Award as best teacher presenter. For me, it was unexpected because I presented for the sake of sharing ideas and experience. After all, there are a lot of more experienced teachers such as Kak Rahmah and Ms. Shantini who are reknowned Guru Cemerlang (Master Teacher) in Malaysia.
Honestly, I feel that we need to give support for more teachers to contribute and share ideas at conferences. My journey hasn’t been smooth sailing, my intention of blogging, carrying out action research, doing innovation and sharing ideas at conferences has sometimes been misunderstood by the admins and fellow colleagues but I move forth because I feel when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. When I was having Tweet discussion with Zaid AlSagoff and Will Deyamport last night, I realise that the most important part of being an teacher is to do what you believe would benefit yourself and your students in a long run. The journey may be painstaking but eventually, things will start to brighten up and the best satisfaction is inspiring others to make a difference. |
2 Comments// Posted in award, guru cemerlang, teaching by Nor Fadzleen Sa don on 05.31.12.
Date : 26th May 2012
Venue : Pusat Islam Iskandar, JB
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| I love the venue chosen by PPDJB this year. All these while, the teacher’s day celebrations were held at school halls. A change is definitely good this time. The event management was smooth-sailing and I would like to congratulate them for pulling this off successfully. |
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| A speech from Tn. Hj. Bahrom Ali, PPDJB Officer. |
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| The choir was spectacular! I think that the teachers performed really well and everyone enjoyed the musical ensemble. Kudos to Pn. Yeow, the conductor who is a GC from SK BBU2. |
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| SMK Tasek Utara won three awards that day. First for Innovative Teacher Award, next is rep for State Teacher’s Debating Team and last but not least, Active Teacher Award. Congrats Ali and Pn. Lim! You are the best! |
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| I am awarded Johor Bahru’s Innovative Teacher Award again this year. For me, every teacher has many ideas and wonderful ways of teaching in classroom and it would be even better if the ideas and experience are shared with others. Alhamdulillah, I perceive it as an encouragement for me to strive better in my future undertakings. |
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| Met my TESL junior, Afidah. She’s a bubbly and jovial person who is currently teaching at SMK Aminuddin Baki. We first met when we were judging the district level debate competition. It was certainly nice meeting you again 🙂 I’m a bit sadden that this would be my last Teacher’s Day as a Tasek teacher for I would be studying full time at UTM this September. Nonetheless, I am proud to be a Tasek teacher as my school has paved many ways for me to improve myself and to meet wonderful teachers and students who made my life colourful and wonderful. |
